A gruesome, compelling fusion of post-apocalyptic fiction and supernatural horror.
A mysterious event turns much of the population into bloodthirsty monstrosities in Carmicle’s debut horror novel.
Attorney Jacob Freeman, his doctor wife, Rebecca, and their 10-year-old daughter, Micah, find their lives turned upside down when the world seems to go insane overnight. As their neighbors—some transformed into nightmarish creatures—murder each other outside their front door, Jacob feels himself fighting the growing “Darkness” within him as horns begin sprouting from his skull. After getting control of the evil thoughts plaguing him, he and his wife decide to take their daughter and leave their devastated neighborhood in search of other possible survivors. After meeting Judith, a seductive young woman who now has a tail (and some seemingly supernatural abilities), Jacob resolves to manipulate her into joining their group—though his very upset wife disagrees with the decision. The group of four begins “a voyage of discovery, a post-apocalyptic Lewis and Clark charting civilization’s ruins.” Along the way, they meet numerous horrific characters (including the Ghoul and the Pale Gentleman)—some of whom offer to help the travelers while others plot to kill them. Further complicating matters is the intense love/hate relationship between Jacob and Rebecca, and the transformation of Micah, who begins growing wings and becomes the target of a faction of “crazies.” A travelogue through Middle America that is fittingly described as a “carnival of horror,” the unapologetically violent novel does have minor issues: The pacing and intensity lag in places, and the concluding chapters seem inexplicably rushed and disjointed. But the laser-focused worldbuilding, excellent character development, and dynamics between the characters (particularly Jacob, Rebecca, and Micah) more than make up for these shortcomings. The many unresolved plot threads at novel’s end create a solid (albeit not exactly satisfying) foundation for potential sequels.
A gruesome, compelling fusion of post-apocalyptic fiction and supernatural horror.Pub Date: July 1, 2025
ISBN: 9798992828504
Page Count: 337
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.
In this long-awaited fifth installment of Shannon’s Bone Season series, the threat to the clairvoyant community spreads like a plague across Europe.
After extending her fight against the Republic of Scion to Paris, Paige Mahoney, leader of London’s clairvoyant underworld and a spy for the resistance movement, finds herself further outside her comfort zone when she wakes up in a foreign place with no recollection of getting there. More disturbing than her last definitive memory, in which her ally-turned-lover Arcturus seems to betray her, is that her dreamscape—the very soul of her clairvoyance—has been altered, as if there’s a veil shrouding both her memories and abilities. Paige manages to escape and learns she’s been missing and presumed dead for six months. Even more shocking is that she’s somehow outside of Scion’s borders, in the free world where clairvoyants are accepted citizens. She gets in touch with other resistance fighters and journeys to Italy to reconnect with the Domino Programme intelligence network. In stark contrast to the potential of life in the free world is the reality that Scion continues to stretch its influence, with Norway recently falling and Italy a likely next target. Paige is enlisted to discover how Scion is bending free-world political leaders to its will, but before Paige can commit to her mission, she has her own mystery to solve: Where in the world is Arcturus? Paige’s loyalty to Arcturus is tested as she decides how much to trust in their connection and how much information to reveal to the Domino Programme about the Rephaite—the race of immortals from the Netherworld, Arcturus’ people—and their connection to the founding of Scion, as well as the presence of clairvoyant abilities on Earth. While the book is impressively multilayered, the matter-of-fact way in which details from the past are sprinkled throughout will have readers constantly flipping to the glossary. As the series’ scope and the implications of the war against Scion expand, Shannon’s narrative style reads more action-thriller than fantasy. Paige’s powers as a dreamwalker are rarely used here, but when clairvoyance is at play, the story shines.
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9781639733965
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A secret history that toys with the mythos of dark academia while reveling in its excesses.
What happens when students at a school for the paranormal decide that enough is enough?
Best known for video games, queer horror, and a collaboration with Richard Kadrey (The Dead Take the A Train, 2023), Khaw detours to visit an elite school and the damaged young adults it serves. At 21, Alessa Li wakes up with a start to find she’s been kidnapped from home in Montreal and apparently enrolled in college, simply because she’s incredibly dangerous. In fact, the Hellebore Technical Institute for the Ambitiously Gifted is less an homage to Hogwarts than a gory rebuttal dressed in wizard’s robes. The story moves between two timelines; the first offers Alessa’s introduction to her creepy classmates, while the second finds them all under siege later in the titular library. “Appendage to the main campus, it acted only in the faculty’s interest, which seemed to revolve exclusively around fucking us students over,” Alessa explains. Among the 20-odd students, cult member Portia transmogrifies into some kind of insectoid critter every now and then; Eoan sacrifices himself by feeding his own body to the school’s ravenous hosts in order to protect his friends; Delilah is an “immortal sacrifice,” dying over and over again in the service of the gods; while Rowan is a “deathworker” whose destiny is foretold by prophecy. There are some intriguing elements—and it’s often hard to take. Like other postmodern antiheroines, among them Chuck Wendig’s Miriam Black (Blackbirds, 2015, etc.) and Julie Crews from The Dead Take the A Train, Alessa’s primary operating mode is pretty much caustic bitch, and her classmates don’t temper it much. Whether the deadpan violence and body horror is excessive is a matter of personal taste, but there’s no denying that the whole thing is pretty squelchy and it’s not always easy to follow. Proceed with caution.
A secret history that toys with the mythos of dark academia while reveling in its excesses.Pub Date: July 22, 2025
ISBN: 9781250877819
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Nightfire
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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